Paris Baguette lands in Delray; Brass Tap Fort Lauderdale replaced
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Paris Baguette, Delray Beach, 1911 S. Federal Highway; ParisBaguette. com:
It has roots far from the City of Lights — South Korea, to be exact — but this fast-growing, bakerycafé chain devoted to baked breads, pastries and caffeine has landed in South Florida, with its first location debuting April 2 at the Delray Market plaza. The eatery brands itself as a hub for trendy pastries, touting creations such as berry-crowned danishes, sugar-sprinkled mochi doughnuts and cocoadusted tiramisu tarts, along with red bean bread loaves, garlic croissants and curry-filled croquettes. There are also cake slices, turkey-mozzarella paninis, caprese baguette sandwiches, salads, and hot and cold Lavazza coffees.
Chef Reece Kitchen, Davie, 5187 S. University Drive; 754-888-9994; ChefReece. com:
Travis Reece, the top-billed chef who served up simmering oxtail stew poolside at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in February, has upgraded into his first restaurant, which opened March 16 inside Renaissance Plaza on South University Drive. Raised on his grandma’s vegetable and cattle farm in Jamaica’s Saint Elizabeth parish, Reece, 30, had cooked for celebrities such as Kanye West, Travis Scott and Tristan Thompson as a private chef before turning to restaurants. Last year, he opened his namesake Jamaican fusion spot at a Chevron gas station in Pembroke Pines, where he served honey-glazed salmon and oxtail pasta braised in barbecue sauce and jerk seasonings. His new storefront adds an expanded menu of vegetarian items like coconut curry chickpeas, salads and natural juices, and more ambitious dishes including curried goat and whole fried red snapper on Fridays and Saturdays only.
El Pama Tavern, Fort Lauderdale, 551 N. Federal Highway, Suite 600; 754-701-0670; ElPamaTavern.com:
A Latin steakhouse and tobacco lounge billed as a “haven where culinary mastery and cigar sophistication unite” has replaced the long-running Brass Tap Fort Lauderdale and its upstairs speakeasy, Unit B, on North Federal Highway. No explanation was given for Brass Tap’s abrupt closure. The new restaurant-lounge, which quietly debuted March 8, is registered to managing partner Fernando Santa, who also operates a Miramar-based retail shop called El Pama Cigar Accessories. El Pama is steeped in tropical decor and speakeasy motifs, with cedarwood furniture, hanging moss, a white baby grand piano and servers wearing white satin gloves and 1920s-era flapper gowns. The menu features Cajunspiced filet mignon steak bites, corn and lobster bisque for starters, soups and salads, and bourbon-glazed tomahawk pork chops, cioppinno, ribeyes and porterhouses for entrees, along with 12 cocktails.
Whit’s Frozen Custard, Coral Springs, 2886 N. University Drive; 754-8121143; WhitsCustard.com:
This Ohio-spun emporium for rich frozen custard scooped out its latest South Florida franchise in late
March in The Walk of Coral Springs plaza, following a recent flurry of openings in Lighthouse Point, Boca Raton, Wellington, Jupiter and Delray Beach. The sweet shop serves its custard in cups, cake, waffle cones and cookies (affectionately called “Whitties”), which are coated or blended with a choice of 40 toppings. Each shop also presents specialty flavors of the day, week and month, such as s’mores, white-chocolate caramel brownie, black raspberry chip, amaretto biscotti and chocolate caramel cashew.
Yellow Yolk, Pompano Beach, 3200 E. Atlantic Blvd.; YellowYolk.com:
After a short-lived stint at The Walk at University in Coral Springs, this all-day brunch house from restaurateur Steve Tsatas has migrated to a new storefront on Atlantic Boulevard, one block from the Intracoastal Waterway. The breakfast menu includes triple-stacked pancakes, classic eggs Benedict, boneless ribeye and smashed potatoes with eggs, avocado toast on walnut and raisin bread with two poached eggs, as well as coffees and juices. Lunch, meanwhile, includes a Chicago-style hot roast beef sandwich with giardiniera and housemade au jus, smash burger and flatbread pizza.
Seafarers’ House Cafe by Big Chef, Fort Lauderdale, 1800 SE 32nd St.; 954-734-1580; Facebook. com/seafarershouseFL:
What started as a nonprofit offering resources, a chapel and meeting space for Fort Lauderdale’s maritime community has added its first public café -restaurant, which hosted its grand opening on March 25 in Port Everglades. The 76-seat breakfast-lunch eatery is registered to Rosana Santos Calambichis, who runs a catering company called Big Chef and describes the menu as “nutritious, casual and flavorful” on social media. Along with coffees, the menu includes chicken avocado sandwiches on baguettes, banana nutella crepes, brie-artichoke flatbread pizzas, dumplings and beef fajitas.
The West End Lounge, Wilton Manors, 2100 Wilton Drive; 954-3958964; TheWestEndLoungeWM.com:
A new cocktail boîte and live music lounge debuted with a grand opening on April 6 on the ground floor of the Gables Wilton Park apartment complex, replacing the former Matty’s. The 2,238-square-foot nightlife space, which comes from owner Chris O’Neill, offers light bites along with mocktails, beer, wine and eight craft cocktails —many
infused with wines. They include a chocolate-forward, brown-butter old-fashioned and the Rosita, with Scotch bonnet-infused tequila, aperol, orange, agave, lime and a Cabernet float.
MaMa YaTai & Donut, Deerfield Beach, 1636-1638 SE Third Court; Instagram. com/MamaYatai.donut:
If you believe Mama YaTai’s social media, roughly 6,000 mochi donuts are made daily at this fantasyland of Japanese treats, which staged its grand opening on April 4 inside The Cove Shopping Center. The doughnut house — adorned in suspended floral paper lanterns, neo-Tokyo wallpaper and anime murals of Sailor Moon and Naruto — comes from owners Ngoc Chau and Loc Nguyen, who also operate MaMa YaTai’s flagship in Davie and its offshoot, An Banh Japanese Corn Dog and Bakery in Fort Lauderdale. As with other locations, MaMa’s menu features yakitori (chicken on skewers), whimsical Japanese corn dogs (coated in potato chips, Hot Cheetos, Rice Krispies) and 50 doughnut flavors (such as sakura cherry blossom).
El Segundo, West Palm Beach, 3950 Georgia Ave.; 561-469-8597; ElSegundoWPB.com:
This Tex-Mex-themed taqueria from prolific Palm Beach County restaurateur Rodney Mayo (Subculture Coffee, Dada, Kapow!, Sassafras, Howley’s, Hullabaloo, Respectable Street) debuted in March on the northeast corner of Southern Boulevard and Georgia Avenue. Dishes from executive chef Angelo Arboleda include six styles of tacos, from brisket burnt ends to al pastor to Cali fish. There are also double smash burgers, birria tacos, mole chicken quesadillas and chocolate birria churros.
Pizza Salad Pointe & SelfPour Beer, Davie, 6370 Griffin Road, Suite C102; 954-406-5445; PizzaSaladPointe.com:
The centerpiece of this new pizzeria, which is registered to Isaac and Elena Golan and debuted in mid-March, literally puts the DIY in IPA: It has an alcohol wall with 30 tap handles where drinkers can pour their own craft beer, along with wine, cider and even cocktails. Dine-in patrons are issued a “drink card,” which they can scan at taps that display the alcohol’s price, name, style and alcohol by volume. (As of this writing, the tap wall offers sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, Moscow mule, margarita cocktails and roughly 20 craft beers.) There is also a build-your-own salad bar with 60 toppings and a medley of New York-style,
Sicilian, Detroit and vegan and gluten-free pies, along with calzones, stromboli, pastas and cannolis for dessert. The Golans also operate Zinncredible Pizza 2 miles west on Orange Drive and Pine Island Road.
Saiko-i Sushi Lounge and Hibachi, Coral Springs, 5791 Coral Ridge Drive; SaikoiBoca.com:
They revived Peking Duck House in Pompano Beach earlier this year, and now husband-and-wife hospitality vets Jason Zheng and Tina Wang (Koi Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Lounge, Coco Sushi Lounge & Bar, Yakitori Sake House) have opened this Japanese restaurant and lounge. The 4,000-square-foot Saiko-i debuted April 2, joining its flagship in Boca Raton, and offers hibachi-style entrees spanning duck and seabass to chicken and Kobe A5 steak, along with Mongolian beef, popcorn chicken, Thai red curry and seafood clay pots of jumbo shrimp, scallop, calamari, snow peas, mushrooms, carrots and XO sauce. There are also sushi boats, cucumber wraps, sashimi, tonkotsu ramen and stir-fry noodles. A long-awaited, 200-seat Plantation outpost is expected to follow by year’s end at 8100-8160 W. Broward Blvd.
Phuse Cream, Sunrise, 2806 N. University Drive; PhuseCream.com:
Joel Franklin’s emporium of sweets debuted March 29 in Sunrise, his second scoop shop specializing in ice cream and his signature treat: macaron ice-cream sandwiches. If the name sounds familiar — or you obsess over dessert anything — Phuse picked up acclaim for winning People’s Choice Champion at the 2023 Dessert Wars Palm Beach convention. Franklin, more entrepreneurial event impresario than baker, also programs Miami’s annual Black Pepper Food & Wine Festival, a showcase of Black-owned restaurants and food trucks. Phuse,
which also has a flagship location on State Road 7 in Plantation, touts 40 ice cream flavors (and four vegan-only ones), including banana praline, Oreo Heath caramel crunch, guava cheesecake, cotton candy and vanilla black raspberry.
Night Owl Cookies, Coconut Creek, 4431 Lyons Road, Suite 106; NightOwlCookieCo.com:
Late-night cookie monsters know all about the over-the-top confections of Andrew Gonzalez, who brought his gourmet creations to Pembroke Pines in 2020. For the uninitiated, Gonzalez started baking in his mother’s kitchen in Miami and, in just a few years, was pumping out 1,000 cookies nightly and making latenight deliveries (as in 2 a.m.-late) to college-aged cookie lovers at Florida International University. (Forbes honored Gonzalez in its lofty “30 Under 30” ranking of top young entrepreneurs in 2017.) He has multiple locations, and now Night Owl has migrated north again, with a new Broward location that debuted in early March inside Promenade at Coconut Creek. (A second Broward outpost is expected to debut this summer inside Plantation’s Market on University plaza). Gourmet cookies on the menu include Ave Maria, topped with Maria cookies, guava chunks and cream cheese; Dirty Diana, which uses chocolate dough stuffed with Nutella; and Rainbow Over Bedrock, topped with Fruity Pebbles.
The Underground Pizza, Palm Beach Gardens, 9920 FL-A1A, Suite 815; TheUndergroundPizza.com:
No, it shouldn’t be confused with The Pizza Underground, a short-lived comedy band created by “Home Alone” actor Macaulay Culkin to parody the Velvet Underground’s songs with pizzathemed lyrics. But The Underground Pizza, which debuted in mid-March in the Promenade Shopping
Plaza, does bill itself as a “punk rock pizza shop” inspired by that 1960s rock band. Owner Cole Herring’s pizzeria specializes in something called “East Coast Deep Dish,” a hybrid pie that resembles Chicago deep dish but has a cornmeal crust and other recipe variations. There are also thin-crust pizzas such as The Blonde (generously topped with garlic-infused olive oil, roasted squash, tomatoes, onions, feta, basil) and Lay’d Back (pineapple, bacon, red onion, jalapeños, feta), plus salads, baked wings and garlic bread.
B&D Trap, Fort Lauderdale, 1551 NW Sixth St.; 561-3827944; BDTrap.com:
This 2,500-square-foot pit stop devoted to Texas-style barbecue is now smoking up Sistrunk Boulevard after its official grand opening on March 29. It’s no secret Texas is brisket country, and so the focus here, naturally, is dry-rubbed brisket by the pound and in sandwich form from hospitality veteran Kevin Rodriguez (The Doral Yard food hall) and pitmaster Orelle Young (The Beast by Todd English in Las Vegas), who competed a few years ago on Food Network Canada’s barbecue competition series “Fire Masters.” The 45-seat restaurant, which offers patio seating on picnic-style tables, also turns out ribs, chicken, pulled pork, wings and turkey, along with sides of mac ‘n’ cheese, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw and cornbread.
Godly’s Dessert Café, 681 NW 27th Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 754-777-9707; Godlyson6th.square. site:
Everything is baked, churned and scooped in-house at this sweet treat parlor that debuted Feb. 1 on Sistrunk Boulevard, an area that has gained a mountain of new cuisine in recent months. Godly’s, which is registered to owner Kamille Bradley,